Episode IX – 9 days until Xmas

15/12

With christmas eve within our grasp we had our second chemistry lab. This time was the aim to compare the enthalpy change (is a way to measure the energy in a reaction transfered to and from the surroundings)  of combustion of different alcohols, more precisley methanol, ethanol, propanol (proan-1-ol and butanol (butan-1-ol). These four were inside spirit burners. We placed the spirit burners udnerneath a concial flask filled with 100 ml of water. Next we isolated the whole conical flask with aluminum, except the bottom of it. Then we lighted the spirit burner and it heated the water with approximate 40 degrees C. Before and after we heated the water we measured the water with a thermometer and weigthed the alcohol. The figures we gained before and after the combustion were wrote down and saved until our future calculations.

 

 

Instead of “Todays Jedi” will we have some intresting Star Wars facts.  

• George Lucas once said that the shape of the Millennium Falcon was based on a hamburger.
• At one point Lucas decided Luke Skywalker was going to be a midget and instead of Skywalker his name was supposed to be Starkiller.
• Anthony Daniels as C-3PO and Kenny Baker, who played R2-D2, are the only actors credited with being in all six Star Wars films.
• The sound of the speeder bike used by the imperials on Endor is actually made by an elephant. However it is speeded up and played backwards.
• The total body kill count in Star Wars are 378 beings..

Epsiode VIII – Vetenskapens hus: A Scientific Odyssey

 12/12

We were back at Vetenskapens hus. But this time sadly without Isabelle ( she had to do some Lucia stuff) and fika provided by Björn. However before we departured for Vetenskapens hus we met in school to work on our lab reports. With those completly finished we went towards the city. Today at Roslagsbanan we had the scariest train conductor of them all , the guy with the very red hair. Anyway when we arrived at Vetenskapens hus the first lab we begun with the one about “kaströrelse” and kinetic – and potential energy. We first learnt the important formulas,     

E_k = m*v²/2   E_p= m*g*h

 

The first one is the equation to calculate kinetic energy and the secoind potential energy. During the experiment our aim were to calculate the value of E_{k   &}   E_p    and compare the two values. We were able to work out the values by the help of canon and fotocells, which where connected to a computer. The canon fired a small plastic ball and the fotocells recorded the velocity. But we also measured the height the ball flew. With the numbers we gained through our trys were we able to calculte the kinetic and potenital energy. The last part of this lab was to compare the two different energies, they differed due to several errors ( for example as friction).

Here are some pictures from the lab:

 

The next thing we did was to go down to “Lasergrottan” this was the most intresting thing of the day. We observed different phenomenons as the plasma sphere, different lasers ( not like the kind in Star Wars, unfortunatley), UV-lamps, holograms and much more.1st and the 2th picture of two plasma spheres. 3th picture the laser, 4th the UVstamp on a 100 kr “sedel.

“.

 After lasergrottan we went uppstairs and had a short break before we began with the other labs. The other lab involved different engines, actually the steam engine, the stirling engine, “bränsleceller” and solar cells. To display how they worked we “played” we three different cars, one powered by the steam engine, “bränsleceller” ( an engine driven by water and hydrogen gas and a car powered by solarcells. All the cars had their positive and negative sides. The steam engine took a long time before it start, the “bränslecell” car had to be recharged before starting and the engine is expensive due to a platina “membran” and the solarcell driven car need the sun’s energy or in this case a strong lamp. Not surprisingly we won the car race with both the steam engine car and the one with “bränsleceller”.

The cars:

                                                   

 

L8r

Episode VII – 3D is awesome!! and early Lucia and lussebullar

11/12

1704 years and 2 days ago some italian guys came up with the idea to kill a beatiful lady called Lucia just because she didn’t want to marry a guy.  Thats why every year we swedes dress up in white robes, sing, go to the church (which all the children loves) and eat Lucia buns 🙂 the 13th of december. But today isn’t the 13th, right? However we in the VRG schools are so coooool so we celebrate Lucia two days earlier than all the others. Since Isabelle is our group’s little Lucia and had to be at the  VRG Lucia concert and sing ( hope it was good after all theese days of practice) we decided to work at the café Mocco. We arrived at 9 a.m except Oliver who came a little late. His excuse was that he was in a shock.  He had seen Bono and the rest of the guys in U2 live!! However he saw it on the cinema, in 3D.

Hmm and what more did we do? yeah thats right, the project.

Actually we beated yesterdays word count. During our 6 hour visit at the coffe shop we wrote our physics lab and finished it. We also discussed about our experiences so far and how we could improve the labreport process now when we will have our second visist at Vetenskapens hus and the next chemistry lab on monday. Isabelle had to leave for the Lucia concert around 13, Julia and Oliver stayed one hour until Julia had to go to a french lesson and Oliver simply ran out of money and got kicked out from Mocco.

Tomorrow will we begin with a new important part of our blog, “Dagens outfit”. (Our only reader, probably someones mom, complained that there wasn’t enough fashion in the blog)

Todays Jedi knight is dedicated to Zlatan and his Inter which lost against Markus Rosenbergs Werder Bremen, haha. The chosen Jedi is Yarael Poof , because he resembles Zlatan in height. Yarael is from the planet of Quermia and is a master with jedi mind-tricks. He is 2.64 meters tall and like nice walks one the beach.

 

Episode VI – What would George Lucas do?

10/12

Today we worked, worked and surprisingly worked even more with our two labreports. We polished and finished our chemistry lab and continued the writing on the physics lab. We have never been so effective and productive as we were today. During the last hours of the day we had a quite short physics lesson , at least in our standards, where we began with Energy. The majority of the lesson Björn went through important equations that is usefull for our second visit at Vetenskapenshus. He mainly foccused on “lägesenergi” and kinetic energy. However we also worked a bit in the physics book with different calculations.

Today a certain group, I won’t mention any names “cough” Arads, accused us of plagiarism. I don’t understand why?! But with the help of the force was that problem solved.

Instead of a corny god bye phrase will we end todays post with a qoute by our little green friend.

“Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try.“

Actually neither one of us understand what it means we just thought it sounded cool…….

Epsiode V

9/12

The big subject today was physics. We dedicated our whole morning disscusing and analysing yesterdays visist at Vetenskapenshus and the labs. One of the things we talked about was how we could improve our observations and participation during the experiments. After our little meeting we began to write on our physics labreport until lunch. Since Isabelle had Lucia repition after lunch Oliver and Julia were quite happy because the group then decided to finish the day and go home separatley and finish our own conclusions. But Oliver had a big and important Achtung match against “sammarna” so he stayed in school and “worked”………..

We realised the threat a certain group’s blog causes to all of the other blogs when they began with the “pokemon of the day”. So we decided that we can’t be worse than them, today and forward will we begin with the “Jedi of the day”.

Who can then be better than Yoda. I don’t think it is neccesary to give him a describition since he is the most powerful jedi knight in the galaxy.  

 

Cya l8r allig8or

Episode IV – Vetenskapens hus

8/12

We returned from the weekend excited for our first physics labs. In difference from the other groups were we priviliged to go to “Vetenskapens hus” and do the experiments there. During the day we did three labs, all involving light. The first lab we used a simulator on the computer to determine the “blandfärger” of red,green and blue and their charateriztics. At the second lab our mission was to calculate the speed of sound through a method called Michelson–Morley experiment. The method is based on calculations on how light is reflected back by two mirrors which passes through a half-silvered mirror. With this method and the equation given in the instructions were we able to calculate a approximate value of the speed of sound. After this lab our guide briefly showed us the telescop of KTH. It was very fascinating since this is the telescop with the biggest reflecting mirror in Sweden. The third and last lab was about light aswell. We investigated how light and light of a certain spectrum were refracted and reflected. After a nice “fika stund” Björn arranged we returned to school and finished our chemistry lab.

Sadly we couldn’t take any pictures this time, due to a serious injury on our photograhper Oliver caused by a mean lamp whom gave him a blister.

Cya l8er

Episode III – The return of the weekend

At friday the 5th of december the members in our group gathered quite late, due to another individual chemistry lab report. Although, as we did not have either lessons or labs during the whole day, this was not a problem. Julia and Isabelle met around ten and spent our time working on chemistry- fysics lab… Oliver joined us later. So, as a summary, you could say that the F-day (final day + friday) before the weekend turned out to be quite chill, which was nice:)

Before you allow yourself to party, satisfy the brain!;)

Episode II: The chemistry lab strikes back

4/12

9 am our whole group met in the F-room to listen to a most important and interesting lecture. This lecture was held by Hans Von Uthmann the vice president of the company “Vattenfall”, and he spoke about energy use, Vattenfall’s work and future and how we can decrease carbon dioxide pollution.

Between the lecture and the following physics lab we almost finished our chemistry and physics lab.

On the afternoon we had a physics lesson. We began with an short introduction on light. To understand more we did a lab where we looked through a “gitter” to see how the light bends. The rest of the lesson we worked with chapter 5.

Epsode I: A new project

3/12

Chemistry and physics lab – Determining the latent heat of fusion of ice.

The first day of the project. We assembled in the chemistry room to determine the latent heat of fusion of ice. Julia was late due to her swedish-test, this, however, did not cause any problems.

After the lab we wrote our schedule for the project period. This work-plan will help us to structure our days and time during the project period.

Before we ended the day we also started to write on the chemistry and physics lab (we gathered all the statistics and results).

To be continued…

 

 

A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away but somehow in this school. An ambitious group gathered to identify the process of thermodynamics and energy.